Rediscovering Dreams/Desires & Forging Forward for Them

Purpose for this post: If you've ever felt stagnant with work, wondering what to work toward next, feeling like you want to grow in a new way but don't know how, this post is for you. A few friends have asked me for the names of the assessments in this post, so here they are. Enjoy!

Months ago my bishop spoke to all of our ward about "not limiting yourself to past decisions." He said, "I am noticing a pattern in almost every one of you that comes in to counsel with me. You are limiting yourselves to past decisions." He was relating this with decisions concerning professions, dating, where to live, what passions to pursue in life and more.

I had been feeling somewhat stagnant at work and in where I was living - a feeling that up until that time I was so fortunate to be extremely unfamiliar with. Life has always been flowing forward - like it was rolling on a river of perpetual progress. Primary, Young Womens, School, College and then into the first few years of work, accompanied by grad school for more growth. The growth was so clear and report cards, young women medallions, degrees and so many friendships and associations with others pursuing progressive paths was enlivening. A couple of years after all of that however, I found that the water I was flowing in seemed more like a pool, and felt somewhat stagnant. This counsel from my bishop was very clear and rang true to me - I wanted to do something about it.

In his counsel he encouraged us to
1) Get to know ourselves better: personalities, likes, dislikes, preferences, passions, etc.
2) Identify what we really want
3) Make a "blueprint" or "roadmap" to get to it

He mentioned that a few assessments that could help us get to know ourselves better, clarify interests, strengths and areas of passion that we may want to pursue. I jotted them down and later found out that I could access some of them at BYU's Career Center. 

After contacting the Career Center, I took pretty much every one of these that they would let me get my hands on. 
Strong Interest Inventory Assessment
Myers Briggs Type Indicator Assessment
Discover
Campbell Interest & Skill Survey
Self Directed Search

Here is a link to all a brief summary of all of the the surveys the Career Center offers. 

The results were illuminating, clarifying and oh so encouraging. It helped me feel reassurance about developing new opportunities with work and it helped me see differentiate between work fields that I might be skilled in from fields that I really care about and have personal interest in. Sometimes we're good at something, but we have no personal passion in the area. For me, secretarial was a prime example of that kind of scenario - my skill level was high while my interest level was low.

Scott Greenhalgh, a career counselor for BYU's Alumni gave me the results from the surveys and went over them with me. It was really helpful.  After going through the results with him and taking some time to go over them thoroughly myself, I also set up a time to go over the results with a friend who is a master networker and who is familiar with many companies that relate with my interests & skills. His insights, advice and especially his encouragement were really helpful.

Can I just tell you how good it feels to have a rung to reach towards? Right now I'm networking with a few companies: Allen Communications, Pearson Publishing and Franklin Covey while planning on still teaching in the fall. It is so invigorating to once again feel motivation, increased personal interest in what I'm doing and like I'm learning, growing, and progressing in a whole new way. For those feeling like your sitting in somewhat stagnant waters, I wish you luck! Looking back on the experience, if I had any advice to give, it would be to...

1) HAVE THE SPIRIT: Keep scripture study, prayer, temple attendance and whatever other basics help you have the Spirit in your life. Nothing will provide you with the peace, reassurance, gentle guidance, and illumination of ideas that the Spirit provides.

2) FEEL UNDERSTOOD, ENCOURAGED AND HELPED BY A FEW: Have a few people that you are close to that you can share things with: what you're experiencing, how you're feeling, the efforts you're investing in, and your process of rediscovering or rewriting your "dream." Having someone to cheer you on and remind you that what you are doing is worth it is so helpful and there is no need to go through it alone. Also, having a few people that you share your experience with, feel encouragement from, and feel understood by, may help get it off of your mind, resolve challenging feelings, and get you on the course to do something productive toward resolving the issues, rather than perpetuating the challenge and discussing it broadly with more people and few who had constructive advise and encouragement.

3) THIS TOO SHALL "COME TO PASS": Keep it in present perspective remembering that by doing the right things, by making good decisions, and taking appropriate initiative to develop opportunities, how things presently are and how you're feeling presently won't last forever. The present will eventually be the past and at that point, you'll only be able to look back and evaluate how well you did in what is currently your present moment - here and now. Some people might say "Keep calm and eat a cupcake."  I'd say keep calm and go to the gym with some good tunes. Just keep doing the things that keep you healthy and happy to "endure well" the present phase that has come to pass, eventually.

Rewriting the dream along with ya,
Ali~


In the sixth lecture on faith, the Prophet Joseph taught: “An actual knowledge to any person that the course of life which he pursues is according to the will of God, is essentially necessary to enable him to have that confidence in God..."


Many months after writing this, a friend shared a talk called "What is Your Calling in Life?" Given by Jeffery Thompson at a BYU Devotional.  I HIGHLY recommend it.